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Christine has over 25 years of marketing experience, and is a recognized thought leader, speaker and author with expertise in corporate strategy, CX and emerging technologies. She has been published in BusinessWeek, Forbes, Huffington Post and has been quoted in several books on marketing and technology. Christine has keynoted and spoken at over 30 conferences on CX and business strategy.

She has directly contributed to creating over $2.7B in value for clients like Oracle, Great Place to Work Institute, Santa Clara University, PayScale, Selligent, New Pig Corporation, Prime Therapeutics, Lithium and McKesson.

Recognized by SDL as a CX Master in 2015, and one of three “B2B Luminary” by MarketingProfs in 2013, she was also Silicon Valley’s Most Influential Women in 2010 as established by Silicon Valley Business Journal.

With stints as EVP Marketing, Business Development & Alliances at Egenera, CMO at Ariba, she has also held management positions with SAP, Oracle and PriceWaterhouse. She holds a Masters in Business Administration from Florida Atlantic University and a Doctorate from Golden Gate University.

There are many approaches to conduct a marketing assessment; the one we have used with clients for years is evidence-based. The advantage is its objectivity. Because there is no fault or blame but an understanding of specifically how to excel. This article outlines an approach to conducting an evidence-based marketing assessment, says Christine Crandell, President, New Business Strategies.

It’s said that self-reflection is a good thing. It helps us to understand ourselves more clearly. How we go about that self-reflection, however, determines the value of the effort. Do we give it cursory attention afraid to know the real truth or do we look at all the evidence revealing a great many things we’ve forgotten we do very well and the areas that need some attention?

In times of market velocity and economic volatility, it’s essential that every organization routinely evaluate its effectiveness. Is it doing the right things in the best possible way to deliver the results needed today and tomorrow?

Nowhere is that more crucial than in marketing. Not only because the discipline is undergoing rapid transformation but also because what defines marketing differs dramatically based on the company’s and its industry growth stage. Unfortunately, for most marketing organizations what should be an annual exercise typically happens only when a new leader arrives.

There are many approaches you can use to conduct a marketing assessment; the one we have used with clients for years is evidence-based. It works because over the years we’ve built a comprehensive master template that is easy to customize and quick to complete.

The assessment process evaluates strategies, plans, activities, investments and their results as evidenced by artifacts. Documents, files, information, and/or tools are artifacts specifically developed to accomplish an activity; they either exist or they don’t. Each assessment area has between 20 and 100 specific evidence artifacts that we look for, evaluate and then score. An artifact is objectively assessed based on completeness, adherence to modern marketing and industry best practices including:

Below is a summary assessment of a very mature company that engaged us to conduct a detailed assessment as part of preparing their digital transformation plan. The blue lines are the total median scores from each assessment category; the green line is the target state. This large client had a lot of work to do to embrace digital marketing and modern marketing best practices. The drill down details under each category in the diagram was instrumental in developing a realistic and achievable prioritized plan.

Contrast that with the assessment results for a technology start-up in an emerging market. The green line is the target ideal state while the orange is the actual score. There is no one size fits all, every company and its situation are different. Assessment approaches must compensate for this otherwise the results run the risk of being unachievable and unrealistic, defeating the very purpose of the evaluation.

It’s key that each assessment category can be drilled down to a detailed list of all the assessment points, descriptions, scores and where the artifacts are stored. Below is the next level down for the “Demand Creation” category from the graph above. The orange is line represents the company’s actual scores while the green line is the target.

Where does the evidence come into play? The focus is on the information and analysis, not on the artifact’s format. Let’s look at the Lead Scoring sub-category:

Definition: Defined and used consistently across inbound, outbound and Sales. Segmentation and scoring model is updated every 6 months to reflect changes in buyer behavior, buying team engagement, journey map, market dynamics, and CTA/tollgates synchronized with dynamic web forms to improve score accuracy.

A partial list of artifacts sought:

“Ideal” lead profiles

Documented and agreed upon definitions and criteria for each lead stage/type

Lead scoring, nurture and retargeting definitions and algorithms

Consistent use of lead definitions by sales, marketing, ops and in reports

Weighting of each tollgate CTA – in aggregate or by persona/role

Lead journey stage calculation based on % engagement alignment with journey map

Care must be taken to make sure there is no double counting of artifacts by duplicating them in more than one subcategory. The focus is less on is making sure the artifact in the right category but a comprehensive list.

For each category and list of attributes, we work with marketing team members to find and review the attributes. The review consists of completeness, alignment with best practices, currency and consistency of usage. Using the lead scoring subcategory, we’d look for a document(s) that defines ideal lead profile(s) that is current, has been signed off and consistently used by marketing and sales, and used as the initial screen of inquiries. In the case of lead journey stage calculation, we’d look for a series of documents starting with outside-in developed detail journey maps by markets and at the persona/role level. Additionally, are key CTAs (gated assets or registration required events/engagements) tied to key micro-moments or tollgates and weighed (vs. weighting content interaction). Are the algorithms for calculating lead journey stage documented and tested quarterly? Are systems capturing data to support the algorithm(s) random tested for accuracy quarterly?

Evidence is complemented with cross-functional interviews to understand the underlying processes and methods. We’ve learned over the years to only share anonymized interview highlights with leadership teams. Otherwise inevitably someone succumbs to the temptation to share or worse confront team members with comments made in confidence.

The final report should include a review of the assessment process, strengths/successes, root causes of improvement areas, recommendations, alternative courses of action, and suggested timelines We recommend a more detailed presentation be shared with the marketing team and afterward that the team presents a summary recap to the rest of the organization.

The advantage of an evidence-based approach is its objectivity. The objective is to not find fault or blame but to help marketing stay aligned to customers, company strategy, and best practices. As growth and maturity comes from self-reflection, so to for organizations – especially during times of uncertainty, volatility and velocity.